Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 5:58 pm Post subject: Best and easiest way to use remote desktop?

I have a few windows apps (render nodes) that require wine and the desktop to run, I have a headless box and would like to use it to help in rendering, what is the best and easiest way to use the box remotely?

I have googled this and ssh x tunneling is one option, vnc is another, i need to be able to use the box without having to have any remote windows open here as i dont want this pc on in order to use the headless box_________________I know 43 ways to kill with a SKITTLE, so taste my rainbow bitch.

X over SSH isn't really an option for what you're asking. The simplest thing that'll work is an xvfb server on the remote box and connect using x11vnc. It was a bit of a pain to set up last time I used it, but that was years ago.

If you can put it into a KVM/Xen virtual machine I'd recommend that instead, libvirt handles all the details automatically and gives you a VNC/Spice remote connection by default. It works at the kernel GPU driver level so everything works like a local install (including the VT consoles), but in a window.

would you have any links i could read to see if what you suggest is what i require? Always willing to learn new things _________________I know 43 ways to kill with a SKITTLE, so taste my rainbow bitch.

I'd say the best way to start off is to install virt-manager locally and just play around with its GUI and running livecd ISOs under qemu. If that looks like what you want, doing it remotely is just a matter of installing libvirt on the server and connecting to that with the GUI.

I tried x2go a couple of months ago. I just worked out of the box, which is unusual for this kind of thing

Have to agree I like x2go, though I found it didn't quite "work out of the box", the client cannot use ecdsa ssh keys so you have to create an rsa key. Confused me for a while

Edit: There is one other minor annoyance with x2go, when resuming a suspended session I need to run setxkbmap to have a fully functional keyboard(still lose DELETE key though), that may be due to my set up and any suggestions appreciated /Edit